Legitimate pay TV revenues will reach $4.12 billion for 20 countries in the Middle East and North Africa by 2022, up by 17% from $3.52 billion in 2016. Five countries will contribute more than three-quarters of the region’s pay TV revenues in 2022.

The number of pay TV homes will increase by nearly 5 million between 2015 and 2022 to 19.52 million. About 18.7% of TV households paid for TV signals by end-2016, which will climb to 22.2% by 2022.

beIN is forecast to have 1.67 million satellite TV subscribers by 2022 – ahead of OSN’s 1.50 million [so excluding subscribers to their channels on other platforms such as IPTV and cable]. beIN will overtake OSN in 2019.

However, OSN is the largest pay TV operator when measured in revenue terms. OSN’s packages are expensive even compared with the most developed countries.

Published in February 2017, this 184-page PDF and excel report combines two of last year’s reports: Digital TV Middle East & North Africa Forecasts and the relevant countries from Middle East & Africa Pay TV Operator Forecasts in one convenient place. The report comes in five parts:

• Executive summary and regional forecasts, with handy comparison tables to reveal the best growth prospects;

• Major pay TV operators, including market share for each;

• Regional forecasts summary from 2010 to 2022 by platform, by household penetration, by pay TV subscribers and by pay TV revenues;